The Opelousas courier., 1887-08-13
THE WORLDS WASTE
How Fortunes Are Yearly Thrown
Away in Trifes.
Three Millions Wasted Annually
in Lost Pins.

4 III CO 1t1ltilOIlo
in Lost Pins.
A writer in the Philadelphia Evening
| Call thus whimsically treats the subject
of useless waste:
wish | had a nickel for every dollar
wasted in this country. Yes, I'll reduce
that proposition to a cent on the dollar,
and then retire rich in a few years. /
don't mean wasted by the rich but by
the poor and the moderately well off.
And when I say waste, | don't include
flowers, pictures or articles solely for the
eve, nor do / consider it waste for a rich
man to have a suit for every day in the
year, or 500 pairs of pantaloons, like that
estimabIe New York gentleman, Berry
Wall. Imean waste in every day mat
ter-of-fact. articles such as everybody
uses.
Let us take pins, for a starter. You
have doubtless been asked what becomes
of the pins, and don't know. Nobody
knows; not even the English journal that
recently offered a cash prize for a solu-
ton of the problem. They are lost, and
that's all you can say about it. But why
should they be lost? You don't lose
your diamond pin, although it's not
much larger than a common brass
1t is evident that the pins could be taken
care of; that they ought to be, let figures
attest. There are go, 00o, 600 people in
the United States, and every one ON an
average loses five cents worth of pins
per annum That makes So, 900, 900 a
year gone nowhere. My 1 per cent. on
that would give me $50, 900 a year;
enough to c ~ - he at any rate. Just
think of So, 900, 600 a year lost -forexer
as not one pin in 20. 600
again. &C. s1uth "
But that Il icosta@sinnlng. Let us
take up cigars and pipes as the next ar
ticle m the catalogue of waste. Don't
be alarmed! | am not going to compute
the cost of smoking and call it waste,
because I am a smoker and have scruples.
am going to concede that money in
vested in tobacco is well invested and
then open your eyes to another awful
leak. Let us approach the subject grad
ually, because it is vast. There are
1000, 900 cigars a week smoked in this
city and 2 1000, 900 pipe loads of tobacco.
Don't ask me how | know this data-you
put me out. Average cost of cigar to
consumer, five cents; total cost, $50, OO0.
Average cost of pipe load, one cent;
total cost, $50, 600. Grand total, $7O,-
900 a week expended, and of this
amount one-fifth is wasted. After long
observation and careful calculation I find
that one-tifth of each cigar is thrown
away unsmoked and the same proportion
of each pipe load. This may seem large,
but | am confident that it is rather under
the average, and it represents a loss of
$14, 900 a week, or $72s, 900 a year. Re
member, this in Philadelphia alone, and
| can safely multiply it by fifty to include
the rest of the country. Grand total,
$36, 400, 900, on which my percentage is
1864, 900. already have a respectable
income, you perceive.
l am only in the suburbs of this sub
ject, and already I am appalled, at the
amount of territory that stretches before
me. 1t is estimated by careful house
keepers that one-tenth of each pot of
coffee Or tea is not fit to drink, and
what to do with the Stops no one knows.
Jumping the crusts of bread, ends of
steak, dabs of butter, crumbs of cake
and pie remnants, | am within bounds
when / say that one-tenth of every meal
goes to waste, and since everybody eats,
even if they don't smoke or drink, the
aggregate must be enormous. | will
not enter into figures, but will content
myself with taking $1,000 a year as my
percentage.
Ihave not finished, even If / do quit.
In the matter of buttons there must be a
sum coming to me, and likewise in
the item of matches. Very few persons
make a match do its full duty. Then
look at the unnecessary amount of paper
that is used in making fires by women,
when old paper is worth a cent a pound.
There are other things too numerous
to mention, and / have not taxi en- at all
into account the things that are thrown
away and return to their original elements,
and so in a measure are not wasted. |
am aware that the list is incomplete, and
| feel sure you will be able to supple
ment it from your experience. But it
will do for an example and serve to
maintain me in idleness and ease during
the remainder of my life. Ny percentage
On the various wastages enumerated is
enormous sum of 1,219, 600 and some
items not enumerated. With that
income / could afford to do some vast
ng on my own account.
A tidy income, isn't it? How much
lave you contributed toward it?